The Devil Inside: I liked it

Point one, as any other review will tell you, it was a hilariously bad example of (a) exorcism movies, (b) found-footage movies and (c) intrepid vigilante movies, subtype “teh Organized Religion is Ungodly Eebul so we fights Satanz alone!!”

The plot is, the main character’s mother went crazy during an exorcism twenty years ago and killed two priests and a nun; now our intrepid main character goes to a mental hospital in Rome with a camera-toting friend to Find Out Things and Peace. (The former, yes, plenty of Things; the latter, no.) They meet two priests that do unofficial exorcisms (see: “teh Organized Religion is Eeebul or at least uncaring bureaucratic basterdz!”), and bit by bit all Hell breaks loose. Then an abrupt ending.

Point two, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the thing; it was a good movie as far as I was concerned.

I loved it, every occasional jump scare of it, every jaunty fact and invoked trope and non-plot-related leering evil nun of it, all of it from the title card saying the Vatican had had nothing to do with it (well, with all its the gross inaccuracies, it would have been enough to give the Pope a stroke), to the abrupt and brilliantly hard ending of it. I laughed with it a lot, which may not be the desired reaction for a horror movie, but I didn’t laugh exactly at it.

I couldn’t shake the feeling the thing was made by benevolent trolls (as of, the Internet), aiming at making something that transcended all categories of good and bad. A bad enough movie becomes good; this movie seemed to be stuck on a carousel going round and round at that wheel of evaluation, not aiming at good plot or being true to life, but just at keeping the audience entertained by throwing everything within reach at the screen. I was thoroughly entertained, at least.

Also, as for the obligatory atheist angle: It was candy! There was no attempt to be serious about theology; the film was theology porn if anything. Then again, all I think theology is good for is plot-twisting porn as just another set of rules of fictional magic, so nothing lost! There was the obligatory thirty-second bit of maybe psychology and then it was all with the wall-crawling and the “Your mother does you-know-what in you-know-where!”; pure wacky candy.

I am happy I could write this review; I am happy I am the sort of person that can feel this way. Heck, going by the reviews written by people with the discernment to objectively know good movies from bad, I was ready to quip the only good thing about the Devil Inside was the Intel Inside-replacing sticker it brought to mind. But no, being an ignorant gobshite without the ability to discern even woody acting makes you much easier to satisfy. Ha ha!

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One Response to “The Devil Inside: I liked it”

I came online tonight, with the sole purpose of finding out why this movie got such a bad rating, when I didn’t find much wrong with it. I’d rather be stuck with a movie that makes me jump and go “What the fuck?!” than most of the bland “horror” movies that come out, nowadays. You don’t need a great, in depth plot to make a good movie – sometimes, leaving details out can be a good thing. When the movie ended like it did; I wasn’t pissed It was an ending that fit the movie.